Traveling to Zaporizhzhya!!

We got up on Friday, July 6 and packed our bags to leave Kiev! We had a bit of time before we were able to pick up our referral, so we decided to visit the World War II Museum!

As we parked, you could see the most beautiful statue, the statue of the Motherland. This beautiful statue stands almost twice the size of the Statue of Liberty! The pictures do it absolutely no justice, seeing it in person brings it to life!! I've looked at other couple's pictures and thought "okay, it's not that big", but when I actually saw it all I could say was "WOW!! A really cool fact about the monument is that it is not taller than the cross on the highest situated church in Kiev, St. Andrews church! When the Motherland monument was first built, they sword was higher than the cross, but they cut it off some b/c they wanted the chapel to have the highest point! Hmmmmm, sort of ironic how a nation NOT founded on Christ, can make sure He is lifted up the most, yet our country that WAS founded on Christ does not......

Under the statue is the museum. As much as I love history, I have to say I wasn't prepared for much of what I was going to see! It was very sad to see the things that this country endured when they were attacked. We took a few pictures, but not a lot. We were more so taking in the scenery. To realize the things that some went through. I think the thing that stood out the most was pictures of children that were placed in concentration camps. These sweet innocent children did nothing to deserve this....in fact, none of the country did! But Germany thought they were a "better" country so to say and could go in and take whatever they wanted. Below is a picture of a pair of gloves that were made of human skin. They would make anything with the things they had. There was also a bar of soap, but we didn't get a picture of that. Also, there is a picture of a table. One side of the table represents the living soldiers from the war, and the other the ones that die. It was a tradition when someone died that they would all get a glass, with a shot of liquor and drink it to remember that person. The pictures, the stories, the memorabilia was just sad, eye opening, and sobering. The last picture is a monument that shows that Ukraine will prevail again. The cross is made out of gun parts, the empty bullets filled with wheat, symbolizing that Ukraine has been attacked, but this will not be the end of the country. It will grow again and be okay. I am completely in awe of the things I saw! There are really too many to mention!

Around 3:30 pm we headed to the SDA to pick up our referral for Yulia so we could head to her region! It was very simple, we went in talked briefly, signed our name, then received our paperwork to take with us!! We decided that Natasha was going to drive to Zaporizhzhya instead of taking the train! We knew it would be about a 6 hour drive (maybe more with stopping), but we were geared up for it! We would take in the beauty of this country and enjoy our time in the car!!

Let me just say, it was a fun experience!! The gas stations on the main road were very nice! The bathrooms were clean, and this one particular we stopped at had a nice cafe to eat in! So we stopped for a bit to stretch, get gas, eat, and hit the road again! The sunflower fields were breath taking! They were everywhere!! We didn't get the best pictures b/c we were driving, but they are still beautiful! There are so many sunflower fields b/c they use primarily sunflower oil here! Double benefit here.....beauty and oil!

It was different going along the highway, many things looked the same, yet many looked so different! We would see cows, horses or goats, just situated on the side of the road, some tied up and some not! Some people have these animals, but don't have any land to feed them, so they would take them each day to the government land for the animals to eat! We've got a picture here of a woman carrying her purse and stick, and taking the cows back home for the evening! People do what they have to do here! There were little stores along the way to buy drinks and snacks. Some places had almost 10 stores side by side selling the same things. They are just all trying to make money to get by.

The pictures do not do justice to how pretty the landscape is! We have a few more pictures, but you'll have to check my facebook to see them! We decided to get off the main hwy and take a shorter road to get here! This was even more of an experience, lol!! The roads were not as smooth, they were bumpy, but it was kinda fun!! My children would have loved the bumpy roads! Each of the villages maintained the roads beside them, so some roads were better than others, depending on how much money a village had! It was really rather neat to see the people of the village out and about! There isn't much for them to do typically, so they all go out walking, and they seem like a true community! Of course along this road we had to use the bathroom, but we could find no gas stations! So we kept driving, rather tempted just to stop on the side of the road!! We saw a few stops, but they all had outside restrooms, and we weren't real sure about using these!! We finally stopped as it was growing darker. There were a few men gathered around the gas station, making it seem a bit awkward! As we got out of the car, Natasha said just don't speak in English......agh, that's all I know! So I kept quiet, only talking very quietly if needed! We survived, and made it back to the car, lol! And we were on our way again!

We got to see a beautiful sunset that evening! It was just a reminder of God's love for us! He is the most amazing artist, creating all this beauty that surrounds us! As we started getting closer to our region, the signs were not clear at all which way to go! It was around 12 or 1 in the morning, and we weren't quite sure which way to go! We asked the only people we saw out, which happened to be drunk men. 3 of them, each at different places, seemed to each send us a different way, lol!! We finally found the way, and arrived safely at our apartment at 2am! It was a long fun ride, filled with many laughs and stories, and taking in God's beauty around us!

So that was our day traveling!! We've had a couple of days here in Zaporizhzhya that I will share about later! God is blessing our time here and we are enjoying learning a little about life here, and spending time with our sweet friend Natasha!

Happy Anniversary and Referral Day!!

It's been a few days since my last blog, and I apologize! We've been exploring and traveling, and it's been so much fun!! I'm going to back up a few days and share the things that have been going on!!

Thursday, July 5 was a very special day! This was the day we celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary! God has blessed us so much these 9 years! Not only was it our anniversary, it was our first appointment at the ministry for adoptions, the SDA. Our appointment was at 10am, and as soon as we got there, we were whisked away upstairs into the office where we sat down with a young lady! She was very beautiful and very serious! We had to tell her a few things about ourselves, like our name, what we do, our biological children, what type of child we want to adopt, and how we met her! She then goes and pulls her file, where she tells us about our sweet Yulia when her parents' rights were diminished. We saw a picture of Yulia at 10 years old, and she looked much the same, yet so much younger! My heart ached at seeing such sweetness and youth that I'm sure was heartbroken as she was placed in the orphanage.

We finished up, and were told to come back the next day between 3 & 4 to pick up the referral! It took about 15 minutes, and was so much easier than I could have imagined....if only everything would be this easy! Of course having Natasha hold our hand every step of the way helped tremendously with this!! She has been like "mama Natasha", and we appreciate her so much!!

Here is a pic of us following our appointment after they said we could pick up approval, we are outside the SDA!! And here is our wonderful Natasha!!

Later that day, we decided to walk and learn more about the country! It was another day of walking about 5 hours, but I can't believe how much of the city we could see walking!! There are so many things to talk about, but I'll limit them here! More pics can be found on facebook to see more of our sights!!

We walked through another beautiful park, it's unbelievable how much the government in Kiev tries to take care of the city, and the way it "looks". Because it was our anniversary, Natasha took us to the bridge of love. It's a short bridge, and it's filled with locks. When a couple gets married, they place a lock on the bridge. Or if someone is in love, they tie a ribbon around it symbolizing their love for one another! It was really sweet to see, as I'm such a visual person! We didn't add a lock to it, although we should have!!

We decided to take a tour of the water museum in the park! It was a very neat tour to find out about how water is moved throughout the city to homes, and when it started, etc, etc, etc!! It was a neat tour, and at the end there was a place to play! Now I think about my children and how much fun they would have had in this part!! So........Natasha and I decided to have so fun, lol!! Here we are enjoying bubbles, who wouldn't want to catch a bubble and be caught up in one, right,  and sitting on the throne!! Of course, the throne Jarrod had to take part in too!!

Our friends, Rachel and Scott, had shared pictures of a yummy looking restaurant to try, and we figured this would be the perfect day as a celebration meal! I've been so proud of us, trying some different things while here!! This was a very yummy dinner, followed by yummy dessert! It was a treat for us, and we went all out, of course it was our only meal "out" for the day, so we had to make it great!! We're thankful for Natasha helping us to order, so we know what in the world we are getting, lol!! Many restaurants here have menu's in Russian and English, so I can read them! Even then, we need help sometimes!

Here is pictures of our food and dessert! And of course, here's the love of my life, celebrating 9 wonderful and blessed years of marriage!!

After dinner, we decided to walk more and explore! There are many different artists throughout this region, and it's neat to see their take on things! Some are a bit humorous, while others are just plain beautiful! We went past a beautiful playground, which my children would LOVE to play on! Even I wanted to play on it!! Then Natasha took us down to the bottom of the hill, to the most beautiful part of the city! It is a very old part that they are renovating and it is absolutely beautiful! I've decided that I want to invest in an apartment here one day! One advantage would be to help other couples have a place to stay when coming to adopt, but also for me to come and visit whenever!! So enjoy the pics here and the beautiful artistic creativity!!

So our anniversary was a "one of a kind", one we will never forget! I'm thankful that not only is God blessing our family by giving us another child, but He sent us on a trip of a lifetime!! He is so good, and I will give Him praise always!! If you want to see more pictures, go to my facebook page! I will have more information on all of them soon!! Be blessed my friends! More blogs soon to come!!

Step by Step!!

Our first full day in Kiev was a beautiful day! We were prepared for the walking we would do, so we told Natasha to bring it on, lol!! We were able to sleep in a bit to try to catch up! We forgot to switch around our times......we are used to calling Yulia later in the day, and it's kind of weird switching it up! So we called mom and dad at like 3 am yesterday, lol!!

We started off by checking out the town! Jarrod and I love history and listening to all of it, taking it in! The bad thing for me, I don't remember all those little details, but there are always certain ones that stand out! I won't put all the different things here, but I'll share some! We walked a total of about 5 hours yesterday and I drank more water in one day than I think I ever have! It was wonderful though, b/c we had our walking shoes on!!

We started off going by St. Andrews church. The panoramic view of the city is beautiful! We didn't go in the church b/c we weren't appropriately dressed, but we are going to try to make it back! We continued on looking at all the beautiful scenery! Honestly I had no idea that Kiev was this beautiful! It's so funny to realize that while we are all human, things can be so different here! There are streets made of cobblestone, and they are very small; making the parking limited. So cars park on the sidewalk! It's different to us, but it's natural here! I'm loving learning a different way of things!

Pictured above is St. Andrews church, the panoramic view of Kiev, Natasha Jarrod and I, Jarrod and I!

The parks here are a big priority. I believe Natasha said 60% of Kiev is parks, but I'm not 100% sure that I'm quoting that right, and she's not here right now to ask, lol!! As we were walking, we passed this beautiful ballerina statue! There are a lot of old trees in Kiev. These trees were in the way of some of the transportation, so the city started to cut some of them down. A local artist asked if he could make statues out of the trees, and they are so beautiful! We saw one of a ballerina and one of a hedgehog! I'm going to post the pictures, but first let me tell you the cool story of the ballerina! There was this famous known ballerina here. She devoted her life to ballet, she never married or had children, and she worked really hard on her career and teaching others about the art of ballet! She was older when the artist made these, but the people in her building requested they make this in honor of her! She couldn't walk down to see the statue when it was completed b/c of her age, but she could see it from her window. How sweet is that! Anyways, here is the pics of the statues! The hedgehog is really awesome too! The part that looks like hair is nails coming out all around! Natasha and I were checking out this cute little guy on the last picture!!

We continued our walk, and learned many more fascinating things!! It was a wonderful day filled with beautiful scenery, beautiful talks, and just a wonderful day! We had a nice lunch and dinner, and we are beginning to try new things, which is a nice thing for Jarrod and I! We found our favorite, a pizza place, but we are venturing out with other things too!!

I love how God has brought us on this wonderful journey, and we are so thankful to have Natasha with us to help us understand everything! We are looking forward to the next few days here in Kiev taking in as much as we can on life here in the city!! Have a great day everyone!!

Ready, Set, Fly!!

Good morning friends or I guess there it's still just evening! It is 4:30am here in Ukraine, and it's already daylight! Although I'm limited in my sleep, I'm already up, at the moment, lol, and ready to go!! I'm going to back up this blog a couple of days, just to share things the Lord has done in our hearts as we are where we are now!!

As we prepared for our departure for Ukraine, it was very hard to even think about leaving our young children at home! We have worked so hard for the past 5 months to get where we are and knew that we would need to leave.....BUT now that it had approached, it was becoming harder and harder! I blogged some about Jonah and how he had been crying. The crying turned in to being kinda angry with us. Honestly I wanted to anger to be there instead of crying so I didn't feel so angry. And I know we all have our different ways of dealing with this, none of which are the right/wrong answer, just coping the best way we can! I messaged my wonderful friend and mentor Rachel, who at the very moment, her children and husband are about to fly home from Ukraine. I asked her if this was normal and asked her to pray, because she had to leave her 3 small children too when she traveled to Ukraine. She assured me it is, but there is absolutely no reason to feel guilty. I am obeying my Father, just as my children obey their mother and father. Hello, light bulb moment, lol! It hit me, it's not like I am leaving them going on a 5 week vacation, I am going to obey what God has called me to do! Thank you Father for this sweet revelation!

Which leads to my next moment of realization! The Bible says to have no other Gods or idols before me. Do you realize that ANYTHING in our life can become an idol?? TV, computer, our husband, our children, having to have a perfect house, having perfectly behaved children, money, and the list goes on and on. Anything that is more important in your life than God is an idol. Most people don't realize these idols, b/c they still pray and spend time with the Father, but these "idols" get more of their attention. Now some of these seem weird, right? And how do I know?? Because at one time, I put Jarrod, my wonderful husband, on this big pedestal, and was seeking after his love and affection more than the Father. That was a hard time for me, b/c I felt like I loved Jarrod more than he loved me, and it was a bit of a struggle in our marriage, at least in my eyes. When I cried out to the Father, He showed me that my priorities were all wrong in my life. It is to be God, my husband, my children, , church, other family, friends, work, etc, etc, etc. (Now every one's priorities will be different depending on what God has shown them, but one thing that will be consistent in ALL Christians lives is that Christ is to be first!) Now when I came to realize what I had done in our marriage, and had put Jarrod as more important than Christ, then I repented, and went chasing after the Father! And guess what, all those feelings of me wanting Jarrod more than he wants me, and those struggles were washed away by the blood, b/c I had no other idols before the Father!

I've had moments where facebook has been an idol, treasuring to read what others have to say about me and to me, more than the things the Father wants to say to me! When preparing for this trip, and the difficulty it is taking to leave my children......the Lord showed me that my children were a bit of idols for me. As a mom of small children, your time with the Father can be limited and quite interrupted if not planned right. Now, the beautiful thing, is there is no condemnation in Christ. We have to be intentional in our walks with the Father, and plan that time, instead of all our time focused on our children. The Father is gracious to forgive us of those times we put other things ahead of Him, and He gives us grace to make those changes! Now if you know me, I would do anything for my children, including lay down my life for them! They were formed in my womb and are a combination of both Jarrod and I! While we are by far NOT perfect parents, our children are our heart! So leaving them, I felt like I was abandoning them, and this is such an uneasy feeling. (I also have realized the enemy's desire to interrupt my duty that God has called us to!). As we were preparing to leave, the Father said we have to lay down all other things before Him to be obedient to what He has commissioned us to, and this includes laying down being with our children for a few weeks! Wow, I count it an honor to be a part of Him changing the world, and not just things in "my little world". This was a sweet and hard revelation. I realize that my children had taken first seat to many things in my life, including at times God. While this will not be an easy 5 weeks, I'm excited about the reconnection I will have with my Father, and how being obedient to Him will shake the universe!! I am also excited about what the Father is doing in my children, realizing that there is sacrifice for love, and they will have a greater concept of this than many other children!

On Saturday, we did running around with the children and staying busy, it was fun and tiring!! I hate packing, and I really mean HATE!! It's hard to know exactly what you will want to wear and take, etc, etc, etc, and honestly 5 weeks is a super long time! I'm a simple stay at home mom, which a limited wardrobe, so here's to hoping I'm dressed okay, lol!! Back to Saturday.......the children have a little pool on the back porch, in which they always want us to come swim. We never want to, b/c it's so cold from getting no sun! That weekend it was a scorching 105 degrees, if not hotter! So we decided why not have some fun with them? Jarrod and I both jumped in the pool, and we had the most amazing family time ever! It almost brought me to tears, just watching our family play and have fun, and realizing just how different our lives will be in a few short weeks. God knew we needed that, we needed that extra time together, and He granted it in a sweet and joyful way!!

Sunday, we prepared for it to be a "hard" day as we said goodbye to church family, to mom, to other friends, and it would be our "last" tuck in at bedtime for a while! Church was amazing, and I found myself weeping during most of worship. When I first started crying, I slipped out and went to the restroom, where I'm being honest, I wanted to stay the whole time. I don't like others to see me cry, and I wanted to keep it together for my children. So I prayed and the Father told me it's okay to cry, and for others to see me this way. I am His child, and my tears are just an expression of the many emotions I feel (happiness, sadness, the unknown, blessings, etc, etc, etc). So I went back where I needed to be in worship, and did just that, had time with my Father in sweet surrender to what He's called us to in our life right now! I cried the whole time pretty much, and my sweet Hannah and Jonah wanted me to hold them and kept asking why I was crying? All I could tell them is that "I love God, and I love them". I didn't want to add to their anxieties and sadness even more, I'm there to protect them! Our sweet church family prayed over us and sent us off. It was a bittersweet thing, as I am now in a country where I only know one other person here that speaks my language! (I'm sure there are more, but she's all I currently know!) Following church, we headed to mom and dad's for lunch and to say our goodbyes! Dad made us all cry during the lunch prayer, as we are all learning to deal with this in a different way, and lately crying seems to be one of them! But please understand, all our tears aren't bad, they are tears of joyfulness, knowing that the Father is doing something in all of our lives, and He is blessings us so much we are overjoyed! We enjoyed time with them, and we all did great leaving, including mom! I think her and I both kept it together, all though I know we've both had those moments of crying! I will miss her more than she realizes! I love calling her while she's headed home from work, that's my phone call I look forward to in the afternoons, and it helps her get through traffic, lol!! But we will survive this little time away!

Sunday night we picked up a quick dinner, and wanted to have some time together! We decided to let the kids stay up late and we snuggled and watched Soul Surfer. It so nice to be reminded that we all have different paths that the Lord has called us to, and none of them were promised to be easy! The snuggles were great, and we all had a wonderful time following the movie in talking and prayer.....and being tucked in! Jarrod and I stayed up and finished getting our bags together, well, let me re-phrase that......I needed to finish getting my bag together, lol!! Every night right before I go to bed, I go check over the children one last time and pray over them. Well that night, it was much harder, and not only did I, but Jarrod did. We did so separately, passing each other in the hall, switching rooms, lol!! I'm sure we both cried doing this, then we went and sat on our bed, and we both just cried together. This part is so much harder than we thought it would be. We prayed together, and decided we need to get some sleep.

I woke up Monday morning early, followed by a couple of wonderful boys! We went and grabbed a special treat for breakfast "Dunkin Donuts", oh my which is sounding really good about now, lol! We had breakfast all together, and just reassured them of how much we love them, and how much we'll be able to talk to them, and see them, etc, etc, etc!! About 9:30 my wonderful friend, Lori, and her 4 children arrived! We knew this would be good for them to be busy and distracted as we get ready to leave! The moment her kids walked in the door, our kids were ready to swim and play! We talked a bit to Lori, then prepared to leave! We took a pic, and the kids were off in the pool. We were like wait, we need big hugs. So we got our hugs and kisses, and our kids were completely fine! Lori gave me in a hug, in which I lost it followed by Jarrod. We went outside to talk with her a bit, and we hoped the kids didn't see us. We cried for a good bit, and I have to be honest, that was the hardest thing I think I've ever done in my life!

We picked up dad at work, and he dropped us at the airport! We said goodbye, and so started the busyness!! I'll be honest, I had my anxieties a little about traveling, b/c the one and only flight I've ever been on has been to Boston (a 2 hr flight) and that was 8 years ago! Now, here we were going to another country, changing planes 3 times, and spending a little over 12 hours in a plane (which was better than the 18.5 I originally thought!). How in the world was I going to deal? Well, I did just fine! We changed planes with no problems, and very little delay. We flew from Atlanta, GA to Newark, NJ, from Newark, NJ to Frankfurt, Germany, and from Frankfurt, Germany to Kiev, Ukraine! We only had 2 hour delays at each airport, which meant we get off one plane, go check in, go through security, and wait about 30 min before our next flight! That 2 hours seemed to be a good amount of time! Praise the Lord I had no problems flying, even being stuck in the middle aisle, us squeezed in between 2 men for an 8 hour flight! I was really hoping for sleep, but it wasn't there!!

Another sweet moment while I was flying and praying! The Lord reminded me of how many WONDERFUL friends, and family we have loving on our children while we are gone. We have mom and dad who will be with them almost everyday, we have our wonderful friends: Lori, Kelley, Chelsea, Ryan, and Linda! There will be others that we will be filling in, but these are the ones on the regular schedule, so please in your praying, lift them up! We wouldn't be going without knowing that our children are in good hands! So it dawned on me what we are doing here! God has called us to go get our sweet Yulia, to love on her during this time alone with her. We will get to connect with her and show her a love that I don't know she's ever experienced. How cool is that?? But the beautiful thing.....while I'm gone, it's not like my children are sitting around just crying. They are being loved on and having fun with friends and family that they KNOW and love!! It was such a sweet thing to realize I'm not just leaving them, God has ALL of us covered, even being countries apart!!

As we arrived in Kiev, there was crazy traffic getting to our apartment, made us feel completely at home, lol! We saw our friend Scott, and his two children Tanya and Viktor, walking on the street! We were hoping for dinner with them, since they are right now at the airport heading back home to Alabama! They are on the final leg of their journey, bringing their children home! So they welcomed us, came over, helped us unload, filled us in on some tips, then let us rest a little! So we got a little rest and got dressed to head for dinner! My beautiful friend Natasha arrived, a woman I have grown to love! We met Natasha back at Christmas in America, and she has held our hand every step of the way in this journey. She is not only our facilitator and translator, she's our friend who I am looking forward to spending time with!! So we all headed to a great pizza place for dinner, then said our goodbye's!!

We were able to finish our evening skyping with our children, which was great! They were with Kelley, and we prepped her that it might be hard! Noah was so busy playing, he just popped in for a moment to say hi, Hannah was all giggly and smiling, and Jonah said a few things, then just watched! He looked a bit sad, but Kelley messaged afterwards to assure me that he perked right up after we finished! We knew he had a hard time at bedtime, so we weren't sure how he would do!

So here we are, this will be our first full day in Ukraine, it's 5:36 am. I'm sure I didn't get enough sleep, and I'm watching my sweet hubby get his rest, but I'm ready to get this journey started! Today is independence day, which isn't celebrated here in Ukraine, but Jarrod and I very much do in our hearts celebrate our freedom! We will make a day of sight seeing and walking and taking in the history of Ukraine! I'm very excited about this! We haven't yet seen our sweet Yulia! :( She's been at camp, and we haven't talked to her in 2 weeks, so that's been hard! Thank goodness for Tanya, because she was able to get her on the phone yesterday and we were able to talk to her!! She's ready for us, and we'll get to see her next week!

Thank you all for following along with us on this journey! My goal is to try to update every other day, if not every day! They won't be as long as this one, as it was a few days worth! Please keep us in your prayers! Specific prayers that we need 1)peace for ALL my children and Jarrod and I 2)blessings, peace and grace on all those caring for our children 3)favor in Ukraine as we begin this process 4)that the remaining $4500 we need to complete everything will come in His perfect timing! Be blessed my friends and I'll be back soon!!

The first pic of our family right before we left for Ukraine! My children are such a blessing, and sweet Yulia is included in that blessing.....and soon she'll be in all our pics too!! The bottom is our friend Scott and his son Viktor! Please join us in praying for the Lawry family as they will be reunited as one big family on July 4! How appropriate, Independence Day!! God Bless you all!!